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American  Verdict   On  The  V'^r 


By 
3.9n\iel   Harden   Church 


■v,.    ^^v  ^>- 


i 


THE  .  .  . 

American 
Verdict  on 
the  War:  a 

REPLY   TO   THE   APPEAL  TO    THE 

CIVILIZED  WORLD  OF 

93  GERMAN  PROFESSORS 

BY 

Samuel  Harden  Church. 

President  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh 

TOGETHER  WITH  THE  APPEAL 
AND  THE  NAMES  OF  THE  SIGNERS 


This  letter  has  been  printed  in  nearly  all  the  princi- 
pal languages  of  the  world  and  circulated  broadcast 
throughout  the  neutral  countries  of  Europe,  and  among 
the  allied  nations;  while  a  special  edition  in  the  Ger- 
man language  has  been  distributed  by  British  aviators 
among  the  German  people  in  peaceful  flights  across  the 
German  borders. 


THE  NORMAN,  REMINGTON  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 
BALTIMORE,  MD. 


Price  15  Cents 


A  French  Translation 
of 

The  American  Verdict  on  the  War 

also  for  sale 

Price  15  cents 

Proceeds  are  devoted  to  the  aid  of 

The  Society  for  the  Succor  of  the  Wounded 

French  Soldiers 


Copyright  1915 

BY 

The  Norman,  Remington  Co. 


FOREWORD 

I  was  moved  to  write  my  letter  on  the  German  War 
because  "The  Appeal  to  the  Civilized  World,"  to  which  it 
is  a  response,  had  been  sent  to  me  by  a  valued  friend,  Dr. 
F'ritz  Schaper,  of  the  University  of  Berlin.  In  making  this 
reply  I  felt  it  to  be  a  duty  to  place  before  Dr.  Schaper,  and 
before  the  German  people,  an  expression  of  the  views 
which  were  almost  overwhelmingly  entertained  by  the 
American  people,  in  order  that  public  opinion  might  exer- 
cise its  largest  influence  in  the  restoration  of  peace.  I  have 
not  yet  received  a  reply  from  Dr.  Schaper,  although 
General  von  Dickhuth,  Governor  of  the  German  province 
of  Thorn,  in  East  Prussia,  has  written  to  me  that  my  letter 
duly  reached  its  destination  in  Dr.  Schaper's  hands ;  and 
other  German  friends  have  assured  me  that  they,  too,  have 
read  it. 

I  can  only  add  now  that  if  the  safeguards  of  the 
World's  peace  and  dignity  are  indeed  ultimately  to  be  found 
in  an  International  Court,  and  in  an  International  Military 
Power  which  shall  be  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  that 
Court's  decrees,  then  it  seems  high  time  that  the  neutral 
Governments  of  North  and  South  America,  including  of 
course  our  own,  should  unite  with  those  of  Italy,  Spain, 
Sweden,  Norway,  Denmark,  and  Switzerland  in  a  mighty 
League  of  Peace,  and  constrain  the  warring  nations  to  stop 
the  conflict,  the  German  armies  to  retire  at  once  from  the 
violated  soil  of  Belgium  and  France,  and  the  guilty  nations 
to  be  assessed  due  penalties.  Such  a  League  of  Peace,  to 
be  joined  later  by  all  the  nations  now  at  war,  would  forever 
end  the  encroachment  of  powerful  states  upon  weaker  ones, 
and  we  would  then  see  human  rights  placed  above  the  ar- 
rogance of  nations. 

S.  H.  Church. 

Pittsburgh,  February  20,  1915. 


407226 


Reply  to  the  German    Professors 

BY 

SAMUEL  HARDEN  CHURCH, 

President  Carnegie    Institute,  Pittsburgh 
Author  of  "The  Life  of  Oliver  Cromwell." 

NINETY-THREE  of  the  most  prominent  men  of  Ger- 
many, distinguished  in  various  branches  of  science, 
art,  education,  and  Hterature,  have  recently  circu- 
lated broadcast  throughout  America  a  letter  entitled,  "An 
Appeal  to  the  Civilized  World,"  in  which  they  attempt  to 
change  public  opinion  in  the  United  States  on  the  subject 
of  war.  In  this  letter  they  state  that  Germany  was  not 
responsible  for  the  outbreak  of  the  war;  that  she  did  not 
violate  the  neutrality  of  Belgium;  that  she  did  not  destroy 
Louvain;  that  her  soldiers  have  not  oppressed  the  Belgian 
people  nor  committed  any  atrocities;  and  that  militarism 
is  the  only  safeguard  of  German  civilization.  Mr.  Church, 
the  President  of  Carnegie  Institute,  at  Pittsburgh,  and 
author  of  a  book  that  has  won  distinction  in  America  and 
Europe,  has  made  reply  to  the  German  appeal,  as  follows: 


4 

Pittsburgh,  U.S.A.,  November  9,  1914. 

Prof.  Dr.  Fritz  Schaper, 

Berlin,  Germany. 

My  Dear  Doctor  Schaper: 

I  have  received  with  your  compHments  and  autograph 
a  printed  letter  addressed  "To  the  Civilized  World,"  and 
signed  by  ninety-three  of  the  most  distinguished  names  in 
German  art,  science  and  literature,  your  own  among  them, 
and  I  assure  you  that  a  communication  so  endorsed  will 
receive  my  most  profound  consideration.  To  me  those 
ninety-three  names  are  tremendously  potent  and  influen- 
tial. I  have  the  honor  of  a  personal  acquaintance  with 
some  of  these  gentlemen,  yourself  and  Prof.  Adolf  von 
Hamack,  and  a  few  others,  while  many  of  these  men  have 
done  their  work  with  such  universal  scope  that  they  must 
not  count  themselves  as  Germans  only,  because  they  belong 
to  the  whole  world,  and  the  whole  world  esteems  and  re- 
veres them  for  their  eminent  services  to  humanity.  The 
plays  of  Hauptmann  and  the  music  of  Humperdinck  are, 
I  am  sure,  as  well  known  in  America  as  in  Germany.  Many 
of  us  have  sat  at  the  feet  of  EhrHch  and  Eucken  as  Paul 
sat  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel.  In  our  great  institutions  of 
science,  art,  and  learning,  such  as  our  Carnegie  Institute, 
we  look  upon  Bode  as  a  source  of  final  judgment  in  his 
field  of  work.  Max  Reinhardt  is  at  the  head  of  a  new 
movement  in  theatrical  production  which  has  reached  the 
American  stage.  Siegfried  Wagner  is  a  precious  name  to 
us  all  by  inheritance.  Rontgen,  Wassermann,  Behring  and 
the  other  signers  have  promoted  learning  and  ameliorated 
human  suffering.  You  yourself  have,  through  the  sugges- 
tion made  by  your  Emperor,  been  a  guest  in  Pittsburgh  at 
the  dedication  of  the  new  building  of  the  Carnegie  Institute, 


among  a  group  of  illustrious  men  gathered  here  from  all 
over  the  world,  the  German  section,  as  I  remember  with 
feelings  of  deep  friendship,  having  included  General  von 
Loewenfeld,  General  Dickhuth,  Dr.  von  Ihne,  Dr.  von 
Moeller,  Dr.  Koser,  and  yourself,  all  of  them,  in  response 
to  our  urgent  request,  bringing  with  them,  as  our  most  pre- 
cious guests,  their  wives  or  daughters,  except  alas !  General 
von  Loewenfeld,  who,  winning  his  way  to  the  head  of 
armies,  told  me  he  had  not  yet  been  able  to  win  a  wife. 
But  I  have  reminded  him  that  while  there  is  life  there  is 
hope. 

Need  I  say  more  to  prove  to  you  how  deep  is  the  sym- 
pathy, affection,  and  gratitude  which  I  and  all  my  country- 
men cherish  towards  the  people  of  the  German  Empire? 
Need  I  say  how  our  hearts  bleed  for  them  in  this  time  of 
dreadful  calamity,  or  how  much  we  hope  and  pray  that 
peace  may  soon  return  to  the  troubled  bosom  of  the  Father- 
land? Why,  the  very  texture  of  our  nation  would  make 
us  true  to  Germany  in  all  her  moral  rights,  because  we  have 
ait  this  moment  eight  million  people  of  German  birth 
or  German  parentage  in  our  population,  and  these  citizens 
are  among  the  very  best  in  this  country.  Therefore,  in  a 
peculiar  sense,  we  hold  Germany  in  our  heart  of  hearts, 
for  she  is  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh.  But  in 
the  same  way  we  cherish  the  people  of  all  other  races,  ex- 
cept, alas,  those  from  Asia,  and  one  day,  in  God's  own 
time,  we  shall  grow  big  enough  in  a  spiritual  sense  to  re- 
ceive the  children  of  Asia  with  equal  hospitality.  But  we 
are  a  cosmopolite  nation,  and  besides  having  those  eight 
million  Germans  we  have  absorbed  thirteen  millions  from 
Great  Britain,  300,000  from  France,  3,000,000  from  Russia, 
2,000,000  from  Austria,  25,000  from  the  Balkans,  and  100,- 
000  from  Belgium.  All  told  we  have  32,000,000  of  foreign 
birth  and  foreign  parentage  in  our  100,000,000  population, 


so  that  our  blood  and  fibre  comprises  the  whole  human 
family. 

Could  we  be  lacking  in  sympathy  for  Germany,  then, 
in  this  awful  war?  And  could  we  take  sides  unjustly  or 
from  prejudice  when  all  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  ter- 
rible conflict  are  our  veritable  brothers  in  the  one  family  of 
God's  children?  Our  excellent  President  Wilson,  beloved 
and  esteemed  by  our  whole  people,  has  charged  us  all  to 
maintain  an  impartial  neutrality,  and  that  I  believe  we  are 
earnestly  striving  to  do ;  but  we  are,  at  the  same  time,  in 
like  manner,  earnestly  striving  to  find  the  right  and  to  con- 
demn the  wrong,  because  neutrality  can  never  mean  indif- 
ference. You  will  remember  that  Dante,  in  the  Inferno, 
found  a  hell  beneath  all  other  hells  prepared  for  those  timid 
beings  who  insisted  on  being  neutral  in  the  everlasting  fight 
between  good  and  evil.  This  war  is  a  fight  between  those 
forces  of  good  and  evil,  and  I  believe  that  the  American 
people,  having  divested  themselves  of  prejudice,  are  devot- 
ing themselves  to  a  study  of  the  evidence  in  order  that  pub- 
lic opinion  may  conform  to  the  facts.  In  the  course  of  this 
study  your  letter  "To  the  Civilized  World"  becomes  a  sub- 
stantial part  of  the  testimony. 

In  your  letter  you  say  that  your  enemies,  "by  their 
lies  and  calumnies,  are  endeavoring  to  stain  the  honor  of 
Germany  in  her  hard  struggle  for  existence — in  a  struggle 
which  has  been  forced  upon  her." 

It  gives  me  a  feeling  of  pity  to  note  the  importunity 
with  which  the  people  of  Germany  are  seeking  the  good 
opinion  of  America  in  this  strife.  It  is  greatly  to  their 
credit  that  they  wish  to  stand  right  in  the  judgment  of  this 
nation.  But  Germany  need  have  no  fear  that  American 
public  opinion  will  be  perverted  by  the  lies  and  calumnies 
of  her  enemies.  We  are  all  going  deeper  than  the  surface 
in  our  search  for  the  truth.    Your  letter  speaks  of  G^ rjnanv 


as  being  in  a  struggle  "which  has  been  forced  upon  her." 
That  is  the  whole  question;  all  others  are  subsidiary.  If 
this  struggle  was  forced  upon  Germany,  then  indeed  she 
stands  in  a  position  of  mighty  dignity  and  honor,  and  the 
whole  world  should  acclaim  her  and  succor  her,  to  the 
utter  confusion  and  punishment  of  the  foes  who  have  at- 
tacked her.  But  if  this  outrageous  war  was  not  forced 
upon  her,  would  it  not  follow  in  the  course  of  reason  that 
her  position  is  without  dignity  and  honor,  and  that  it 
is  her  foes  who  should  be  acclaimed  and  supported  to  the 
extreme  limit  of  human  sympathy? 

I  believe,  dear  Doctor  Schaper,  that  the  judgment  on 
this  paramount  question  has  been  formed.  That  judgment 
is  not  based  upon  the  lies  and  calumnies  of  the  enemies  of 
Germany,  nor  upon  the  careless  publications  contained  in 
the  newspapers,  but  upon  a  profound  study  of  the  official 
correspondence  in  the  case.  This  correspondence  has  been 
published  and  disseminated  by  the  respective  Governments 
concerned  in  the  war;  it  has  been  reprinted  in  full  in  our 
leading  newspapers,  and  with  substantial  fullness  in  our 
magazines,  and  has  been  republished  in  a  complete  pam- 
phlet form  in  one  huge  edition  after  another  by  the  "New 
York  Times,"  and  again  by  the  American  Association  for 
International  Conciliation ;  and  the  public  demand  for  this 
indisputable  evidence  has  not  yet  been  satisfied,  although 
many  millions  of  our  people  have  read  it.  These  documents 
are  known  officially  as  (i)  The  Austro-Hungarian  note 
to  Servia.  (2)  The  Servian  Reply.  (3)  The  British 
White  Paper.  (4)  The  German  White  Book.  (5)  The 
Russian  Yellow  Book.  (6)  The  Belgian  Grey  Book.  They 
contain  all  the  letters  and  dispatches  which  each  govern- 
ment desired  to  publish  to  the  world  as  its  own  justifica- 
tion for  being  at  war.  And,  by  the  way,  every  man  whe* 
studies  these  papers  will  regret  two  things:  first,  that  Gcr- 


8 


many  has  not  dared  to  publish  her  correspondence  with 
Austria,  and,  second,  that  Austria  has  not  dared  to  publish 
her  correspondence  with  Germany.  If  the  world  were  in 
possession  of  this  suppressed  evidence,  its  judgment  on  the 
question  of  guilt  would  doubtless  be  greatly  facilitated. 
But,  in  so  far  as  they  have  been  printed,  all  of  these  docu- 
ments are  before  me  as  I  write  this  letter.  I  cannot  help 
wondering  whether  they  have  been  circulated  in  Germany ; 
I  cannot  help  wishing  that  the  German  people  might  have 
the  opportunity  which  my  countrymen  have  had  of  reading 
these  state  papers  in  their  fullness. 

Was  this  war  forced  upon  Germany?  What  do  the 
official  documents  prove  ? 

Well,  we  all  know  that  Austria,  away  back  in  1908,  made 
seizure  of  the  two  provinces  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina. 
A  thing  like  that  enrages  the  human  spirit ;  and  the  brains 
of  some  men  will  not  act  normally  under  such  extreme 
provocation.  In  May,  1914,  the  Austrian  Crown  Prince 
went  into  these  provinces.  The  people  looked  upon  him  as 
an  invader,  a  usurper,  a  conqueror,  a  tyrant,  and  he  was 
assassinated.  It  was  a  detestable  act,  condemned  and  ab- 
horred by  just  men  everywhere.  I  condemn  it,  detest  it, 
and  abhor  it.  But  it  was  the  penalty  which  any  man  would 
pay  who  would  flagrantly  invade  a  conquered  province 
under  like  circumstances.  There  is  always  a  hot-head  ready 
to  murder  a  tyrant,  and  a  tyrant  is  one  who  makes  himself 
a  conqueror  for  his  own  aggrandizement.  In  the  eyes  of 
those  subjugated  people,  the  Crown  Prince  was  a  tyrant. 
Austria  at  once  assumed  to  hold  Servia  responsible  for  this 
murder,  and  dispatched  an  ultimatum  containing  ten  drastic 
conditions  which  were  more  exacting  upon  the  dignity  of 
Servia  than  any  demand  that  was  ever  before  made  by  one 
nation  upon  another.     Yet  Servia  yielded  to  all  except  in 


part  as  to  Articles  5  and  6.  In  Article  5  the  Imperial 
scheme  of  Pan-Germanism  was  developed — insidiously 
broached,  it  is  true,  but  still  it  was  put  before  Servia  as  a 
definitive  part  of  the  plan  of  Austro-German  expansion. 
Servia  was  required  "to  accept  the  collaboration  in  Servia 
of  representatives  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  government  in. 
the  suppression  of  the  subversive  movement  directed  against 
the  territorial  integrity  of  the  (Austrian)  monarchy." 

This  brief  clause  is  full  of  hidden  meaning.  The 
phraseology  is  so  elastic  that  its  acceptance  by  Servia  would 
have  given  Austria  the  opportunity  to  extend  its  purport  so 
that  it  would  cover  practically  any  kind  of  interference  in 
Servian  affairs  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  suppressing 
any  "subversive  movement."  Already  Austria  had  ravished 
Servia  of  two  of  her  precious  jewels,  and  was  laying  her 
plans  now  to  despoil  her  of  more.  In  Germany's  "White 
Paper"  we  read  an  undisguised  acknowledgment  that  the 
main  object  of  Austria's  war  on  Servia  was  to  assert  a  con- 
trol in  Servia  over  all  policies  which  Austria  might  regard 
as  having  any  inimical  effect  upon  such  territory  as  should 
now  belong  to  Austria  or  would  hereafter  be  annexed. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  of  anything  that  would 
be  a  more  fatal  impairment  of  the  sovereignty  of  Servia 
than  for  her  to  yield  to  this  harsh  demand.  Yet  she  replied 
with  patience  and  dignity,  consenting  "to  admit  such  col- 
laboration as  agrees  with  the  principle  of  international  law, 
with  criminal  procedure,  and  with  good  neighborly  rela- 
tions." 

It  is  well  that  we  should  keep  in  mind  the  avowed  ob- 
ject of  Germany  and  Austria  in  making  this  significant  de- 
mand upon  Servia,  in  order  that  we  may  be  able  to  avoid 
the  error  of  assuming  that  the  Austrian  war  on  Servia  was 
merely  a  punitive  expedition  on  account  of  the  assassination 
of  the  Crown  Prince  of  Austria.     When  these  minatory 


lO 


conditions  were  published,  Russia,  as  one  of  the  great  pow- 
ers of  Europe,  naturally  felt  that  she  had  a  historical  basis 
to  claim,  and  she  did  emphatically  claim,  a  right  to  a  voice 
in  determining  whether  the  sovereignty  of  the  kingdom  of 
Servia  should  be  permanently  impaired.  Germany  well 
knew  that  an  insistence  upon  this  condition  would  make  a 
general  war  inevitable ;  yet  she  proclaimed  her  insistence 
from  the  house-tops,  and  defied  Russia  to  interfere. 

Again,  Article  6  contained  the  unprecedented  condi- 
tion that  Austrian  jurists  should  sit  in  the  Servian  court 
before  which  the  assassins  were  to  be  tried,  and  even  here 
Servia  agreed  to  submit  in  effect,  although  calling  attention 
to  the  extremely  reasonable  fact  that  such  participation  by 
Austria  was  contrary  to  the  laws  of  Servia.  If  her  replies 
on  any  part  of  the  ultimatum  were  not  satisfactory  to  Aus- 
tria, Servia  candidly  offered  to  hold  further  conversations 
on  the  subject,  or  to  refer  the  matter  to  The  Hague  Court, 
or  to  the  great  powers  of  Europe.  In  this  transaction  Servia 
showed  a  disposition  towards  reparation  and  towards  peace, 
which  the  civilized  world  has  been  trying  for  many  years 
to  inculcate  into  the  foreign  relations  of  all  nations.  Servia 
had  just  passed  through  two  wars,  and  her  strength  was  ex- 
hausted. But  Austria,  conscious  all  the  time  that  good  faith 
would  have  enabled  her  to  reach  an  agreement  in  a  con- 
versation of  thirty  minutes,  was  resolved  to  make  war,  and 
in  this  resolve  the  German  Emperor  and  the  militar}^  party 
in  Germany  upheld  her,  as  candidly  acknowledged  in  their 
official  declarations. 

The  German  White  Cook  is  ver}'  frank  on  this  subject. 
It  says:  "We  were  able  to  assure  our  ally  (Austria)  most 
heartily  of  our  agreement  with  her  view  of  the  situation, 
and  to  assure  her  that  any  action  that  she  might  consider 
it  necessary  to  take  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the  movement 


II 


in  Servia  directed  against  the  existence  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  monarchy  would  receive  our  approval." 

You  will  see,  my  dear  Doctor  Schaper,  that  it  never 
entered  into  the  minds  of  the  Emperor  and  his  advisers  to 
refer  the  question  to  The  Hague  Court  or  to  discuss  it  in 
a  concert  of  the  powers  of  Europe,  What  we  are  trying 
to  do,  you  will  remember,  is  to  find  out  who  began  the  war. 
So  the  German  statement  proceeds :  "We  were  fully  aware 
in  this  connection  that  warlike  moves  on  the  part  of  Aus- 
tria Hungary  against  Servia  would  bring  Russia  into  the 
question,  and  might  draw  us  into  a  war  in  accordance  with 
our  duty  as  an  ally." 

I  hope  you  will  read  that  last  quotation  with  extreme 
care.  Does  it  not  prove  by  German  declaration  alone  that 
all  these  myriad  thousands  of  good  German  working  men 
who  have  been  slaughtered  in  their  invasion  of  other  lands 
have  died,  not  because  the  Fatherland  was  in  peril,  but  be- 
cause ambitious  schemes  of  the  dynastic  houses  of  Haps- 
burg  and  Hohenzollern  demanded  the  sacrifice? 

In  the  English  White  Paper  we  have  all  the  telegrams 
which  were  exchanged  between  the  English  Foreign  Office 
over  the  signature  of  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  the  diplomatic 
officials  of  the  other  powers,  including  the  Imperial  Chan- 
cellor of  Germany.  These  telegrams  to  and  from  her  own 
foreign  office  are,  curiously  enough,  not  included  by  Ger- 
many in  her  presentation  of  the  case.  On  July  24th  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey,  through  the  British  Ambassador  at  Berlin,  pro- 
posed a  conference  between  Germany,  Italy,  France  and 
England  in  the  event  of  the  relations  between  Austria  and 
Russia  becoming  threatening,  and  he  repeated  this  sugges- 
tion the  next  day  to  the  German  Ambassador  at  London. 
The  Emperor  returned  suddenly  to  Berlin  on  July  26th 
(he  was  not  "away  on  his  vacation  when  the  war  broke 
out,"  as  has  been  stated  by  his  defenders  in  America  time 


12 


and  time  again),  and  Sir  Edward  Grey  repeated  his  urgent 
appeal  for  a  conference  of  accommodation.  So  on  the  next 
day  the  English  Ambassador  at  Berlin  telegraphed  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey  "Secretary  of  State  says  that  conference  you 
suggest  would  practically  amount  to  a  court  of  arbitration, 
and  could  not,  in  his  opinion,  be  called  together  except  at 
the  request  of  Austria  and  Russia.  He  could  not,  there- 
fore, fall  in  with  your  suggestion,  desirous  though  he  was 
.to  cooperate  for  the  maintenance  of  peace.  I  said  I  was 
sure  that  your  idea  had  nothing  to  do  with  arbitration,  but 
meant  that  representatives  of  the  four  nations  not  directly 
interested  should  discuss  and  suggest  means  for  avoiding 
a  dangerous  situation.  He  maintained,  however,  that  such 
a  conference  as  you  proposed  was  not  practicable." 

Was  Germany  anxious  to  avoid  war?  Did  she  make 
the  slightest  effort  to  avert  it?  Do  we  see  her  being  at- 
tacked? Were  her  "jealous  neighbors"  oppressing  her? 
On  the  contrary,  Germany  stood  steadfastly  upon  her  as- 
surance that  Austria  was  justified  in  making  war  on 
Servia,  and  that  if  Russia  interfered,  she  would  fight  Rus- 
sia. Then  who  began  the  war?  And  once  again,  why  did 
these  German  husbands,  sons  and  fathers  die?  And  all  this 
time  England  and  France  and  Russia  and  Italy  were  striv- 
ing mightily  to  hold  back  Austria  from  beginning  a  con- 
flict which  they  all  knew,  as  Germany  knew,  would  destroy 
the  peace  of  the  world.  They  all  pleaded  for  further  con- 
ference, but  Austria  w^as  obdurate,  being  upheld  to  her  un- 
compromising attitude  by  Germany,  and  on  July  27th  she 
began  her  war  on  Servia. 

Returning  to  the  German  White  Book,  we  read  that 
after  Austria  had  attacked  Servia,  Russia  began  to  mobilize 
her  army,  as  she  had  all  along  declared  that  she  would  do, 
for  action  against  Austria  if  it  became  necessary.  We  then 
come  upon  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  communications 


13 

which  has  ever  been  written.  It  is  a  telegram  from  the 
German  Emperor  to  the  Czar,  and  says :  "The  unscrupu- 
lous agitation  which  has  gone  on  for  years  in  Servia 
has  led  to  the  revolting  crime  of  which  Archduke  Francis 

Ferdinand  was  the  victim Undoubtedly  you 

will  agree  with  me  that  we  two,  you  and  I,  as  well  as  all  sov- 
ereigns, have  a  common  interest  in  insisting  that  all  those 
morally  responsible  for  this  terrible  murder  shall  suffer 
deserved  punishment." 

We  begin  to  see  now  why  those  German  soldiers  have 
died,  and  why  those  German  women  are  weeping.  A  prince, 
no  matter  whether  he  was  a  usurper  and  an  invader,  has 
been  shot.  Therefore  let  all  Hell  break  loose  in  Europe! 
And  those  of  us  who  have  been  shocked  when  bombs  have 
been  hurled  at  emperors,  are  now  astounded  to  behold  that 
emperors,  in  emulation  of  the  most  despicable  anarchists, 
have  themselves  hurled  bombs  at  defenseless  women  and 
children  in  Antwerp  and  in  Paris. 

The  Czar  replied:  "A  disgraceful  war  has  been  de- 
clared on  a  weak  nation ;  the  indignation  of  this,  which  I 
fully  share,  is  immense  in  Russia.  I  foresee  that  soon  I 
can  no  longer  withstand  the  pressure  that  is  being  brought 
to  bear  upon  me,  and  that  I  shall  be  forced  to  adopt  meas- 
ures which  will  lead  to  war." 

The  Emperor  answered  thus :  "I  cannot  consider  Aus- 
tria's action  a  disgraceful  war.  Austria  knows  by  experi- 
ence that  Servia's  promises,  when  they  are  merely  on  paper, 
are  quite  unreliable." 

I  cannot  help  asking  you,  dear  Doctor  Schaper,  if  the 
world  has  not  come  to  know  that  there  are  other  promises 
which,  when  they  are  merely  on  paper,  are  quite  unreliable  ? 
Does  not  one  such  paper  bear  your  Emperor's  signature? 
Has  not  your  Emperor  declared  that  his  solemn  and  sacred 


14 

guarantee  of  Belgium's  neutrality  is  nothing  but  a  scrap  of 
paper? 

England  now  asked  whether  Germany,  in  the  event  of 
war,  would  guarantee  that  she  would  not  despoil  France 
of  her  territorial  possessions,  and  Germany  replied  that  she 
could  not  give  such  guarantees.  And  in  answer  to  a  last 
effort  on  the  part  of  England  to  protect  France  from  dis- 
memberment and  spoliation,  the  Emperor  sends  this  amaz- 
ing telegram  to  the  King  of  England:  "My  mobilization 
cannot  be  countermanded  because  I  am  sorry  your  telegram 
came  so  late.  But  if  France  offers  me  neutrality,  which 
must  be  guaranteed  by  the  British  fleet  and  army,  I  shall  of 
course  refrain  from  attacking  France  and  employ  my  troops 
elsewhere.  I  hope  that  France  will  not  become  nervous. 
The  troops  on  my  frontiers  are  in  the  act  of  being  stopped 
by  telegraph  and  telephone  from  crossing  into  France." 

"My  mobilization !"  It  is  the  Emperor,  then,  who  has 
mobilized.  The  time  may  come,  dear  Doctor  Schaper,  and 
you  and  I  ought  to  hope  that  it  will  come  soon,  when  there 
will  be  neither  Kings  nor  Emperors  with  power  to  mobilize 
armies  as  a  child  plays  with  toy  soldiers !  In  a  certain 
event,  says  the  Emperor,  "I  shall  refrain  from  attacking 
France" — and  mark  what  follows !  " —  and  employ  my 
troops  elsewhere."  The  Emperor  is  determined  to  make 
war,  either  on  France,  or  "elsewhere."  And  then :  "I  hope 
France  will  not  become  nervous."  Now  what  should  make 
France  nervous?  "The  troops  on  my  frontiers  are  in  the 
act  of  being  stopped  by  telegraph  and  telephone  from  cross- 
ing into  France."  There  we  have  it  all !  The  telegram  from 
England  came  too  late ;  the  German  Emperor  has  mobilized ; 
his  armies  are  already  crossing  the  French  frontiers,  but 
France  must  not  become  nervous !  Poor  France !  already 
shaking  with  the  tread  of  a  million  invaders,  she  must  not 
get  nervous ! 


IS 

The  final  step,  then,  appears  to  be  an  ultimatum,  on 
July  31st,  from  the  Imperial  German  Chancellor  giving 
Russia  twelve  hours  to  cease  her  mobilization.  But  Russia 
continued  to  make  her  preparations,  and  the  war  broke  out 
on  August  ist. 

Who  began  it?  Was  it  England?  Scarcely  so,  for 
England,  in  so  far  as  her  army  is  concerned,  had  yielded  to 
the  popular  plea  for  arbitration ;  she  was  not  ready  for  war 
and  will  not  be  ready  for  another  six  months.  Was  it 
France?  Was  it  Russia?  Not  one  of  the  ninety-three  dis- 
tinguished men  who  have  sent  me  this  letter,  if  they  will 
read  the  evidence,  will  say  so.  Nominally  it  was  Austria, 
who,  by  her  unreasonable  and  inexorable  attack  on  Servia, 
began  the  War,  but  Austria  was  supported,  controlled  and 
guided  at  every  step  by  Germany,  who,  in  her  turn,  gave 
notice  to  the  powers  of  Europe  that  any  interference  with 
Austria  would  be  resented  by  Germany  to  the  full  limit  of 
war. 

For  what,  then,  have  these  brave  German  soldiers  died? 
Alas !  Not  one  of  all  those  among  her  slaughtered  battal- 
ions could  answer  that  question,  in  the  last  moment  of  his 
agony.  The  men  who  have  fallen  among  the  allies  have 
died  on  their  own  soil,  defending  their  countries  against  in- 
vasion, but  all  your  sons  have  died  in  a  foreign  land  with- 
out a  cause. 

The  next  point  in  your  letter  reads  thus :  "It  is  not 
true  that  we  trespassed  in  neutral  Belgium."  Have  these 
ninety-three  men  studied  well  the  letter  they  have  signed? 
Could  intellects  so  superbly  trained  deliberately  certify  to 
such  an  unwarranted  declaration?  Once  again  I  ask.  are 
the  people  of  Germany  being  supplied  with  the  evidence 
which  is  given  to  the  rest  of  the  world?  Has  any  one  of 
my  ninety-three  honored  correspondents  read  the  guilty 
statement  made  by  Imperial  Chancellor  von  Bethman-Holl- 


i6 


weg  in  the  Reichstag  on  August  4th  ?    I  fear  not,  for  in  that 
statement  the  Chancellor  said: 

"We  were  compelled  to  override  the  just  protests 
of  the  Luxemburg  and  Belgian  governments.  Our 
troops  have  occupied  Luxemburg  and  perhaps  are  al- 
ready on  Belgian  soil.  Gentlemen,  that  is  a  breach  of 
international  law.  It  is  true  that  the  French  govern- 
ment has  declared  at  Brussels  that  France  is  willing  to 
respect  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  so  long  as  her  oppo- 
nent respects  it.  France  could  wait,  but  we  could  not. 
The  wrong — I  speak  frankly — that  we  are  committing 
we  will  endeavor  to  make  good  as  soon  as  our  military 
goal  has  been  reached." 

Again,  I  am  impelled  to  wonder  whether  any  of  you 
gentlemen  are  aware  of  the  fact  that  your  Imperial  Chan- 
cellor himself  made  an  appeal  for  the  good  opinion  of  the 
American  people,  which  was  published  in  the  American 
newspapers  on  August  15th,  in  which  he  again  acknowl- 
edges this  crime  against  Belgium  in  the  following  words : 

"Necessity  forced  us  to  violate  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium,  but  we  had  promised  emphatically  to  com- 
pensate that  country  for  all  damage  inflicted." 

What  will  the  good  conscience  of  the  German  people 
say  when,  in  spite  of  its  passion  in  the  rage  of  war,  it  grasps 
the  awful  significance  of  the  confession  of  its  Imperial 
Chancellor?  What  necessity?  Who  would  ever  have  at- 
tacked you  if  your  Emperor  had  not  marched  his  troops 
across  the  frontiers  of  his  peaceful  neighbors?  "The  wrong 
that  we  are  committing."  The  wreck  and  ruin  of  a  country 
that  has  done  you  no  injury,  the  slaughter  of  her  sons,  the 
expulsion  of  her  King  and  government,  the  blackmail  of 
her  substance,  the  destruction  of  her  cities,  with  their  happy 
homes,  their  beautiful  monuments  of  historic  times,  and  the 
priceless  works  of  human  genius ! 


17 

"The  wrong  that  we  are  committing."     Worst  of  all, 

when  the  desperate  and  maddened  populace,  seeing  their 
sons  slain  and  their  homes  in  flames,  fired  from  their  win- 
dows in  the  last  instinct  of  nature,  your  troops,  with  bar- 
baric ferocity,  put  them  to  the  sword  without  distinction  of 
age  or  sex !  The  wrong !  Why  do  you  deny  it  against  the 
shameful  acknowledgment  of  the  official  voice  of  Germany? 
Oh,  Doctor  Schaper,  if  these  conditions  should  ever  be  re- 
versed and  these  foreign  soldiers  should  march  through  the 
streets  of  Berlin,  would  not  you,  would  not  all  of  my  ninety- 
three  correspondents,  if  they  saw  their  homes  battered  in 
ruins  and  their  sons  dead  in  the  streets,  would  not  they,  too, 
fire  from  their  windows  upon  the  merciless  invaders?  I 
am  sure  I  would  do  so !  When  our  American  troops  were 
recently  dispatched  to  Mexico,  not  to  conquer,  not  to  make 
war,  but  to  restore  peace  and  good  order  and  the  authority 
of  law,  some  of  the  people  of  Vera  Cruz  fired  at  them  from 
their  windows,  and  twenty-three  cf  our  young  soldiers  were 
killed.  At  last  they  fired  back  at  the  sharpshooters,  but 
they  did  not  destroy  the  city,  nor  kill  the  innocent,  and  even 
those  among  the  sharpshooters  who  were  captured  were 
not  executed,  but  were  admonished  to  good  behavior,  and 
set  free.  I  almost  wish  that  America  had  the  power  and 
the  will  to  go  into  Belgium  and  France,  to  thrust  back 
these  wicked  invaders,  and  restore  peace  and  good  order 
and  the  authority  of  law  there.  Such  a  power  is  surely 
going  to  be  organized,  one  of  these  days,  by  the  humane 
people  of  all  the  world,  and  after  that  a  nation  which  under- 
takes to  prepare  death  and  hell  for  all  mankind,  as  your 
nation  has  done  during  these  past  twenty-five  years,  will  be 
restrained  as  a  public  enemy.  Yet  the  gross  savagery  that 
took  us  to  Mexico  is  mild  indeed  when  we  compare  it  with 
the  barbaric  destruction  and  murder  that  is  being  pursued 
by  your  troops  in  those  two  countries. 


i8 


If  Germany  is  not  guilty,  then,  Doctor  Schaper,  in 
God's  name,  why  are  your  armies  in  Belgium?  Why  are 
they  in  France?  If  you  had  waited  until  you  had  been  at- 
tacked, you  would  never  have  found  your  nation  at  war. 
Your  Imperial  Chancellor  says  that  you  have  violated  in- 
ternational law  and  that  you  will  endeavor  to  make  good 
the  wrong  you  are  committing.  Why,  Doctor  Schaper,  all 
the  gold  you  could  give  to  France  and  Belgium  in  a  thou- 
sand years,  and  all  the  penitential  prayers  you  could  utter 
in  every  hour  of  a  thousand  years,  together  with  the  con- 
trition of  a  shamed  and  broken  heart,  would  not  repair  your 
ruin  of  two  nations  by  fire  and  slaughter,  nor  dry  up  the 
ocean  of  human  tears  which  have  accompanied  your  hideous 
invasion.  People  sometimes  ask  us :  "Would  you  rather 
have  the  Slav  than  the  German?"  And  the  reply  is  always 
to  the  same  efifect :  "Yes,  since  we  have  seen  the  German 
at  war,  we  would  rather  have  the  Slav,  rather  the  Turk, 
rather  the  Hottentot !" 

Your  communication  makes  other  denials,  that  you 
"have  not  injured  the  life  and  property  of  a  single  Belgian 
citizen  without  the  bitterest  self-defense  having  made  it 
necessary,"  and  that  your  troops  "have  not  treated  Louvain 
brutally."  The  judgment  here  also  must  rest  upon  the  facts, 
and  the  facts  are  too  well  known  to  justify  their  repetition, 
and  argument  would  be  wasted.  I  do,  however,  bring  one 
witness  against  you  on  this  charge,  and  one  only.  It  is  your 
Emperor.  Hear  him!  "My  soldiers  have  destroyed  Lou- 
vain because  of  the  trespass  of  the  people,  and  the  lives 
and  property  of  many  innocent  persons  have  been  sacri- 
ficed.   My  heart  bleeds  for  I.ouvain  !" 

You  likewise  make  denial  of  atrocities,  not  justified  by 
warfare.  Well,  here  in  Pittsburgh,  we  have  received  a  let- 
ter from  one  of  our  Red  Cross  nurses  who  is  serving  in 
Belgium.    Among  those  under  her  care  is  a  boy  who,  brave 


19 

lad,  fired  from  his  window  at  the  troops  who  were  ravaging 
his  country,  and  had  both  hands  cut  off  by  your  soldiers. 
And  was  not  the  Burgomaster  of  Termonde  slain  because 
he  defended  his  daughter  against  the  attack  of  a  German 
officer — a  guest  in  his  own  house?  Another  story  reaches 
me  to-day  from  one  of  my  own  business  correspondents 
formerly  living  at  Brussels  but  forced  to  flee  to  Nantes, 
who  tells  me  that  your  soldiers  shot  the  Cashier  of  the  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Belgium  and  his  two  sons,  because  he  re- 
fused to  give  them  the  combination  of  his  safe.  Common 
tales  like  these  seem  only  too  well  authenticated.  But  why 
make  denial  of  individual  atrocities  when  we  have  them  in 
such  wholesale  instances  as  those  at  Louvain,  Alost  and 
Termonde?  Our  people  look  upon  war  itself  as  an  atrocity, 
debasing  a  nation  that  provokes  it  as  much  as  private  mur- 
der debases  the  criminal  who  instigates  it.  Your  Emperor 
was  admired  as  one  of  the  greatest  men  in  the  world.  But 
what  will  be  the  fame  that  he  leaves  to  posterity?  Oh, 
what  a  fall  is  there !  His  inexcusable  provocation  of  war 
has  stung  humanity  to  the  innermost  depths  of  its  soul.  Be- 
sides drenching  Europe  with  human  blood,  he  is  giving  her 
a  new  population  of  weeping  widows  and  bereft  mothers, 
of  fatherless  children,  and  of  men  without  arms  and  legs. 
A  heritage  of  hate ! 

And  then  you  conclude  your  letter  by  defending  Ger- 
man militarism.  Well,  that  would  bring  us  back  again  to 
the  question  of  how  the  war  began.  No  candid  mind  can 
doubt  that  the  responsibility  for  the  war  rests  entirely  upon 
Germany  because  of  her  encouragement  of  Austria  to  at- 
tack Servia,  knowing,  as  Germany  knew,  that  a  European 
conflagration  would  result.  For  Austria  is  only  a  ram- 
shackle empire,  bound  together  by  a  rope  of  sand,  not  able 
to  assimilate  various  races  into  one  homogeneous  nation, 
as  we  assimilate  them  in  America,  because  her  government 
is  not  a  government  of  equal  rights,  and  she  could  never  do 


20 


anything  either  good  or  .bad,  on  her  own  initiative,  in  a 
masterful  way.    But  there  are  causes  back  of  this. 

Your  reference  to  German  mihtarism  brings  to  mind 
the  conviction  that  this  war  began  potentially  twenty-five 
years  ago,  when  Emperor  William  II.  ascended  the  throne, 
declared  himself  Supreme  War  Lord,  and  proceeded  to  pre- 
pare his  nation  for  war.  His  own  children  were  raised  from 
their  babyhood  to  consider  themselves  soldiers  and  to  look 
forward  to  a  destiny  of  slaughter;  and  here  in  America  we 
know  even  his  daughter  only  by  her  photograph  in  a  colonel's 
uniform.  And  as  with  his  own  children,  so  all  the  youth  of 
his  empire  were  brought  up.  Compulsory  military  service 
made  every  man  a  soldier.  I  have  been  in  Germany  and  have 
everywhere  noted  the  lack  of  national  tranquility,  for  the 
streets  were  at  all  times  full  of  soldiers ;  the  eye  caught  noth- 
ing but  the  flash  of  shining  helmets  and  polished  breast- 
plates; the  ear  heard  nothing  but  the  clanking  of  sabres  and 
the  jingling  of  spurs.  Horses  were  chafing  their  bits  and 
beating  the  air  with  impatient  hoofs.  And  all  this  constant 
noise  and  panoply  of  war  has  poisoned  the  imagination  of 
the  German  people,  and  the  surging  spirit  of  conflict  has  got 
itself  into  their  blood. 

A  man  wearing  the  Kaiser's  uniform  became  at  once 
a  member  of  an  exclusive  class.  A  waiter  questioning  a 
score  with  a  drunken  officer  was  stabbed  to  the  heart,  the 
soldier's  uniform  making  the  act  a  good  defense.  A  lame 
shoemaker,  living  in  a  conquered  province,  who  muttered 
words  against  the  Kaiser's  troops,  was  cut  down  with  a 
sabre,  and  the  officer  who  committed  the  cowardly  assault 
was  effusively  praised  by  the  German  Crown  Prince.  A 
man  in  humble  station,  who  sought  to  greet  with  familiar 
approach  a  former  friend  now  in  officer's  uniform,  was 
killed  for  his  impudence,  the  murderer  even  writing  a  letter 
to  his  victim's  mother  justifying  the  crime.    I  have  myself 


2Z 


seen  German  officers  elbow  gentle  women  on  the  street  to 
make  more  room  for  themselves.  I  have  seen  others  of  them 
raise  their  glasses  to  the  day  when  they  would  be  at  war. 

And  in  every  day  of  every  year  of  the  twenty-five  the 
Emperor  has,  by  his  incendiary  speeches,  inflamed  the  pub- 
lic ardor  for  this  potential  war.  Men  who  proposed  sub- 
stantial ways  of  peace  were  sneered  at  for  their  interfer- 
ence. When  the  working  classes  of  the  world  began  to 
stagger  under  the  taxation  for  prospective  war  (about  75 
per  cent,  of  the  revenues  of  all  governments  going  into 
these  wasted  expenditures)  the  English  cabinet  proposed 
a  cessation  of  further  preparation  for  one  year,  but  the  Em- 
peror's answer  to  this  humane  suggestion  was  to  add  four 
battleships  to  his  fleet  and  three  hundred  thousand  men 
to  his  army,  immediately  requiring  France  to  lengthen  out 
her  term  of  service  from  two  years  to  three. 

Your  General  von  Bernhardi  said:  "Efforts  to  secure 
peace  are  extraordinarily  detrimental  to  the  national  health." 
The  very  professors  in  your  universities  have  helped  instil 
into  the  minds  of  your  young  men  this  doctrine  that  war 
was  inevitable.  Going  far  away  from  your  great  philoso- 
pher, Kant,  who,  in  his  Categorical  Imperative,  has  taught 
us  all  a  new  golden  rule,  the  national  spirit  of  Germany 
has  been  fed  on  the  sensual  materialism  of  Nietzsche,  on 
the  undisguised  bloodthirst  of  General  von  Bernhardi,  on 
the  wicked  war  dreams  of  Treitchske,  and  on  the  weak 
morality  of  von  Biilow ;  and  in  every  scrap  of  evidence 
that  we  can  gather  from  your  Emperor,  his  children,  his 
soldiers,  his  statesmen,  and  his  professors,  we  behold 
that  Germany  held  herself  a  nation  apart  from  the  rest  of 
the  world  and  superior  to  it,  and  predestined  to  maintain 
that  superiority  by  war.  In  contrast  to  this  narrow  and  de- 
structive spirit  of  nationalism,  we  in  America  have  learned 


22 


the  value  of  humanity  above  the  race,  so  that  we  cherish 
all  mankind  in  the  bosom  of  our  country. 

And  right  here,  dear  Doctor  Schaper,  may  I  say  that 
the  statesmanship  of  Germany  has  been  constructed  upon 
one  false  principle  which  is  mainly  responsible  for  all  the 
woes  that  this  German  war  has  brought  upon  the  world? 
Your  military  rulers  have  inculcated  in  the  hearts  of  your 
people  the  belief  that  the  German  flag  must  follow  Germans 
in  their  emigration.  Hence  you  claim  to  require  colonies. 
Then  your  Emperor  tells  his  people  that  Germany  is  above 
all — have  you  not  a  song  to  those  words? — he  teaches 
them  that  they  are  above  the  rest  of  our  poor  humanity, 
and  they  believe  it.  Well,  there  are,  as  I  have  said,  eight 
million  Germans  in  America  who  do  not  require  the  Ger- 
man flag  in  order  to  insure  their  utmost  felicity.  There 
are  other  thousands  of  them  in  Canada,  in  Brazil,  in  Ar- 
gentina, and  elsewhere  around  the  globe,  always  safe  and 
happy  without  the  German  fl.ag.  When  Americans  adopt 
other  countries  they  do  not  carry  our  flag  with 
them.  Is  it  not  absurd  and  mischievous,  then,  to  hold  to 
the  doctrine  that  Germans  henceforth  must  continue  to 
live  under  the  German  flag,  wherever  they  go?  Is  not  the 
wild  dream  of  Pan-Germanism  at  the  bottom  of  this  great 
crime?  Is  there  not  a  higher  destiny,  to  be  bom,  perhaps, 
out  of  this  war,  that  humanity  is  greater  than  any  race,  and 
that  governments  in  conflict  with  that  destiny  must  perish? 

Then,  again,  your  military  class,  desiring  to  hold  the 
government  in  their  own  hands,  are  promulgating  the  idea 
that  the  common  people  of  Germany  are  incapable' of  what 
English  and  Americans  call  self-government.  "No  people,*' 
says  your  General  von  Bernhardi,  "is  so  unfitted  as  the  Ger- 
mans to  direct  their  own  destinies."  Well,  I  cannot  help 
wondering  what  the  reckoning  will  be  between  the  German 
people  and  their  rulers  when  this  war  is  over.    There  is  a 


23 

fine  line  in  Bulwer's  play,  "Richelieu,"  which  fits  this  case : 
"Oh,  if  men  will  play  dark  sorcery  with  the  heart  of  man, 
let  them  who  raise  the  spell  beware  the  fiend !" 

These  war  dreams,  this  German  solidarity,  this  Pan- 
Germanism,  this  mendacious  diplomacy,  this  policy  of  being 
armed  to  the  teeth,  this  false  principle  of  the  state  above 
the  individual,  the  still  more  fallacious  sentiment  of  Ger- 
many above  humanity,  the  contempt  of  your  military  rulers 
for  human  life,  their  eager  wish  to  destroy  the  whole  body 
of  property  which  marks  the  progress  of  mankind — all  this 
has  made  the  world  afraid  of  you.  Your  insatiate  spirit 
has  terrified  us  all.  Your  General  Staff  have  even  published 
a  plan  for  attacking  America.  If  you  beat  down  the  Brit- 
ish Empire,  why  will  not  our  turn  come  next? 

And  so,  at  last,  my  dear  Dr.  Schaper,  we  find  our- 
selves shocked,  ashamed,  and  outraged  that  a  Christian  na- 
tion should  be  guilty  of  this  criminal  war.  When  I  say  that 
we  hate  this  conflict  and  that  we  execrate  the  German  mili- 
tarists who  made  it,  I  am  uttering  the  opinion  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  American  people,  including  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  our  German-American  citizens.  There  was 
no  justification  for  it.  Armed  and  defended  as  you  were, 
the  whole  world  could  never  have  broken  into  your  borders. 
And  while  German  culture  still  has  something  to  gain  from 
her  neighbors,  yet  the  intellectual  progress  which  Germany 
was  making  seemed  to  be  lifting  up  her  own  people  to 
better  things  for  themselves  and  to  an  altruistic  service  to 
mankind.  Your  great  nation  floated  its  ships  in  every 
ocean,  sold  its  wares  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth, 
and  enjoyed  the  good  favor  of  humanity,  because  it  was 
trusted  as  a  humane  state.  But  now  all  this  achievement 
has  vanished,  all  this  good  opinion  has  been  destroyed.  You 
cannot  in  half  a  century  regain  the  spiritual  and  material 
benefits  which  you  have  lost. 


24 

Oh,  that  we  might  have  again  a  Germany  that  we  could 
respect,  a  Germany  of  true  peace,  of  true  progress,  of  true 
culture,  modest  and  not  boastful,  forever  rid  of  her  war 
lords  and  her  armed  hosts,  and  turning  once  more  to  the 
uplifting  influence  of  such  leaders  as  Luther,  Goethe,  Beet- 
hoven and  Kant !  But  Germany,  whether  you  win  or  lose  in 
this  war,  has  fallen,  and  the  once  glorious  nation  must  con- 
tinue to  pursue  its  course  in  darkness  and  murder  until  con- 
science at  last  bids  it  withdraw  its  armies  back  to  its  own 
boundaries,  there  to  wait  for  the  world's  pardon  upon  this 
inexpiable  damnation. 

I  believe  you  will  forgive  me  for  suggesting  that,  if  the 
ninety-three  men  who  have  written  me  this  letter  would 
exercise  their  great  influence  upon  the  conscience  of  their 
own  countrymen  to  stop  the  war,  recall  your  armies,  and 
plead  for  peace  upon  terms  which  would  take  full  cogni- 
zance of  the  wrongs  your  Emperor  and  your  Imperial  Chan- 
cellor have  confessed — then  would  you  be  doing  a  real  serv- 
ice to  humanity  surpassing  all  the  achievements  of  your 
lives. 

Many  good  things  are  sure  to  come  out  of  this  wicked 
war.  The  best  of  all  will  be  peace.  I  belong  to  all  the 
peace  societies,  and  have  observed  that  the  men  of  peace 
used  to  speak  with  bated  breath  and  walk  with  timid  step, 
fearful  of  the  glance  of  fighting  men.  But  from  this  time 
forward,  I  predict  that  peace  is  going  to  be  the  most  militant 
thing  on  this  earth,  enforcing  law  and  order  with  the  high 
hand  of  authority,  and  trampling  under  foot  the  petty  maj- 
esties who  would  ever  again  try  to  develop  great  empires 
upon  the  dead  bodies  of  poor  working  men  and  simple  peas- 
ants. Then  shall  we  find  humanity  greater  indeed  than  any 
part  of  it  which  may  be  called  a  nation. 

I  desire  in  closing  this  Tery  candid  response  to  youi 
letter,  to  express  my  profound  sympathy  for  the  German 


25 

people.  I  mourn  with  you  for  the  good  and  brave  men 
whose  lives  have  been  needlessly  thrown  away  in  an  interna- 
tional debauch  of  murder  and  robbery;  I  weep,  as  you  do, 
with  the  precious  women  whose  hearts  have  been  broken  by 
an  insupportable  loss;  I  pity  the  poor  little  children,  a 
million  and  more  of  them,  who  must  grow  up  without  the 
love  and  care  of  a  father.  I  wish  that  I  might  do  or  say 
something  that  would  help  to  assuage  the  grief  of  the  Ger- 
man people,  but  no  human  hand  can  lighten  such  a  stag- 
gering burden  of  affliction. 

With  my  thanks  for  your  letter,  and  my  compliments 
to  the  other  gentlemen  whose  names  are  signed  to  it,  with 
a  profound  wish  that  permanent  peace  may  soon  come  to 
this  troubled  world,  and  assuring  you  of  my  unshaken 
friendship  and  esteem,  I  am,  dear  Doctor  Schaper, 

Always  faithfully  yours, 

S.  H.  CHURCH. 


26 

TO  THE  CIVILIZED  WORLD 


As  representatives  of  German  Science  and  Art,  we 
hereby  protest  to  the  civilized  world  against  the  lies  and 
calumnies  with  which  our  enemies  are  endeavoring  to  stain 
the  honor  of  Germany  in  her  hard  struggle  for  existence — 
in  a  struggle  which  has  been  forced  upon  her. 

The  iron  mouth  of  events  has  proved  the  untruth  of 
the  fictitious  German  defeats,  consequently  misrepresenta- 
tion and  calumny  are  all  the  more  eagerly  at  work.  As 
heralds  of  truth  we  raise  our  voices  against  these. 

It  is  not  true  that  Germany  is  guilty  of  having  caused 
this  war.  Neither  the  people,  the  government,  nor  the 
"Kaiser"  wanted  war.  Germany  did  her  utmost  to  prevent 
it ;  for  this  assertion  the  world  has  documental  proof.  Often 
enough  during  the  26  years  of  his  reign  has  Wilhelm  II. 
shown  himself  to  be  the  upholder  of  peace,  and  often 
enough  has  this  fact  been  acknowledged  by  our  opponents. 
Nay,  even  the  "Kaiser,"  they  now  dare  to  call  an  Attila, 
has  been  ridiculed  by  them  for  years,  because  of  his  stead- 
fast endeavors  to  maintain  universal  peace.  Not  till  a  nu- 
merical superiority  which  had  been  lying  in  wait  on  the 
frontiers,  assailed  us,  did  the  whole  nation  rise  to  a  man. 

It  is  not  true  that  we  trespassed  in  neutral  Belgium.  It 
has  been  proved  that  France  and  England  had  resolved  on 
such  a  trespass,  and  it  has  likewise  been  proved  that  Bel- 
gium had  agreed  to  their  doing  so.  It  would  have  been  sui- 
cide on  our  part  not  to  have  been  beforehand. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  life  and  property  of  a  single  Bel- 
gian citizen  was  injured  by  our  soldiers  without  the  bitterest 
self-defense  having  made  it  necessary;  for  again,  and  again, 
notwithstanding  repeated  threats,  the  citizens  lay  in  ambush, 
shooting  at  the  troops  out  of  the  houses,  mutilating  the 


27 

wounded,  and  murdering  in  cold  blood  the  medical  men 

while  they  were  doing  their  Samaritan  work.  There  can 
be  no  baser  abuse  than  the  suppression  of  these  crimes  with 
the  view  of  letting  the  Germans  appear  to  be  criminals,  only 
for  having  justly  punished  these  assassins  for  their  wicked 
deeds. 

It  is  not  true  that  our  troops  treated  Louvain  brutally. 
Furious  inhabitants  having  treacherously  fallen  upon  them 
in  their  quarters,  our  troops,  with  aching  hearts,  were  obliged 
to  fire  a  part  of  the  town  as  a  punishment.  The  greatest 
part  of  Louvain  has  been  preserved.  The  famous  Town  Hall 
stands  quite  intact ;  for  at  great  self-sacrifice  our  soldiers 
saved  it  from  destruction  by  the  flames.  Every  German 
would  of  course  greatly  regret,  if  in  the  course  of  this  ter- 
rible war  any  work  of  art  should  already  have  been  de- 
stroyed or  be  destroyed  at  some  future  time,  but  inasmuch 
as  in  our  love  for  art  we  cannot  be  surpassed  by  any  other 
nation,  in  the  same  degree  we  must  decidedly  refuse  to  buy 
a  German  defeat  at  the  cost  of  saving  a  work  of  art. 

It  is  not  true  that  our  warfare  pays  no  respect  to  in- 
ternational laws.  It  knows  no  undisciplined  cruelty.  But 
in  the  east  the  earth  is  saturated  with  the  blood  of  women 
and  children  unmercifully  butchered  by  the  wild  Russian 
troops,  and  in  the  west,  Dum-Dum  bullets  mutilate  the 
breasts  of  our  soldiers.  Those  who  have  allied  themselves 
with  Russians  and  Servians,  and  present  such  a  shameful 
scene  to  the  world  as  that  of  inciting  Mongolians  and  Ne- 
groes against  the  white  race,  have  no  right  whatever  to  call 
themselves  upholders  of  civilization. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  combat  against  our  so-called  mil- 
itarism is  not  a  combat  against  our  civilization,  as  our  ene- 
mies hypocritically  pretend  it  is.  Were  it  not  for  German 
militarism,  German  civilization  would  long  since  have  been 


a8 


extirpated.  For  its  protection  it  arose  in  a  land  which  for 
centuries  had  been  plagued  by  bands  of  robbers,  as  no  other 
land  had  been.  The  German  army  and  the  German  people 
are  one,  and  to-day  this  consciousness  fraternizes  70  mill- 
ions of  Germans,  all  ranks,  positions  and  parties  being  one. 

We  cannot  wrest  the  poisonous  weapon — (the  lie — out 
of  the  hands  of  our  enemies.  All  we  can  do  is  to  proclaim 
to  all  the  world,  that  our  enemies  are  giving  false  witness 
against  us.  You,  who  know  us,  who  with  us  have  protected 
the  most  holy  possessions  of  man,  we  call  to  you: 

Have  faith  in  us !  Believe,  that  we  shall  carry  on  this 
war  to  the  end  as  a  civilized  nation,  to  whom  the  legacy  of 
a  Goethe,  a  Beethoven  and  a  Kant  is  just  as  sacred  as  its 
own  hearths  and  homes. 

For  this  we  pledge  you  our  names  and  our  honor. 


Adolf  von  Baeyer, 

Professor    of    Chemistry,    Munich. 

Prof.   Peter  Behrens, 

Berlin. 

Emil  von  Behring, 

Professor  of  Medicine,  Marburg. 

Wilhelm  von  Bode, 

General   Director  of  the   Royal 
Museums,   Berlin. 

Alois  Brand!, 

Professor,    President    of    the    Shakes- 
peare  Society,   Berlin. 

Luju  Brentano, 

Professor  of   National   Economy, 
Munich. 


Prof.  Justus  Brinkmann, 

Museum   Director,    Hamburg-. 

Johannes  Conrad, 

Professor  of  National  Economy, 
Halle. 

Franz  von  Defregger, 

Munich. 

Richard  Dehmel, 

Hamburg. 

Adolf  Deissmann, 

Professor    of    Theology,    Berlin. 

Prof.  Wilhelm  Doerpfeld, 

Berlin. 


39 


Friedrich  von  Duhn, 

ProftMor  of  Archaeolojry,  Heidelberg. 

Albert  Ehrhard, 

ProfcBBor  of  R.  Catholic  Theologry, 
StraBsburg. 

Prof.  Paul  Ehrlich, 

Frankfort-  on-the-Main. 

Karl  Engler, 

Professor  of  Chemistry,   Karlsruhe. 

Gerhard  Esser, 

Professor  of  R.   Catholic  Theology, 
Bonn. 

Rudolf  Eucken, 

Professor   of   Philosophy,   Jena. 

Herbert  Eulenberg, 

Kaieerswerth. 

Heinrich  Finke, 

Professor  of  History,  Freiburg. 

Emil  Fischer, 

Professor    of   Chemistry,    Berlin. 

Wilhelm  Foerster, 

Professor   of  Astronomy,    Berlin. 


J.  J.  de  Groot, 

ProfeiBor  of  Ethnography,  Berlin. 

Fritz  Haber, 

Professor  of  Chemiitry,   Berlin. 

Ernst  Haeckel, 

ProfesBor  of  Zoology,  Jena. 

Max  Halbe, 

Uunich. 

Prof.  Adolf  von  Harnack 

General   Director  of   the   Royal 
Library,    Berlin. 

Gerhart  Hauptmann, 

Agnetendorf. 

Karl  Hauptmann, 

Schreiberhau. 

Gustav  Hellmann, 

Professor  of  Meteorology,   Berlin. 

Wilhelm  Herrmann, 

Professor    of    Protestant    Theology, 
Marburg. 

Andreas  Heusler, 

Profeasor   of   Northern    Philology, 
Berlin. 


Ludwig  Fulda, 

Berlin. 


Adolf  von  Hildebrand, 

Munich. 


Eduard  von  Gebhardt, 

DuMeldorf. 


Ludwig  Hoffmann, 

City    Architect,    Berlin. 


407226 


30 


Engelbert  Humperdinck, 

Berlin. 


Maximilian  Lenz, 

Professor   of   History,    HamburK. 


Leopold  Graf  Kalckreuth, 

President   of  the   German  Confedera- 
tion   of    Artists,    Eddelsen. 

Arthur  Kampf, 

Berlin, 

Fritz  Aug.  V.  Kaulbach, 

Munich. 

Theodor  Kipp, 

Professor  of  Jurisprudence,  Berlin. 

Felix  Klein, 

Professor   of   Mathematics, 
Goettingen. 

Max  Klinger, 

Leipsic. 

Alois  Knoepfler, 

Professor  of  History  of  Art,  Munich. 

Anton  Koch, 

Professor  of  R.  Catholic  Theology, 
Muruster. 

Paul  Laband, 

ProfesBor  of  Jurisprudence, 
Strassburg. 

Karl  Lamprecht, 

Professor   of   History,    Leipsic. 


Max  Liebermann, 

Berlin. 

Franz  von  Liszt, 

Professor  of  Jurisprudence,  Berlin. 


Ludwig  Manzel, 

President  of  the  Academy  of  Arts, 
Berlin. 


Josef  Mausbach, 

Professor  of  R.  Catholic  Theology, 
Munster. 


Georg  von  Mayr, 

Professor   of   Political    Sciences, 
Munich. 


Sebastian  Merkle, 

Professor    of    R.    Catholic    Theology, 
Wurzburg. 


Eduard  Meyer, 

Professor    of    History,    Berlin. 

Heinrich  Morf, 

Professor   of  Roman  Philology, 
Berlin. 

Friedrich  Naumann, 

Berlin. 

Albert  Neisser, 

Professor   of   Medicine,    Breslau. 


Philipp  Lenard, 

Profewor  of  Physic*,  Heidelberg. 


Walter  Nernst, 

Profeseor    of    Phy»icB,     Berlin 


31 


Wilhelm   Ostwald, 

Professor  of  Chemistry,  Leipsic. 

Bruno  Paul, 

Director  of  School    for   Applied  Arts, 
Berlin. 

Max  Planck, 

Professor    of    Physics,    Berlin. 

Albert  Plehn, 

Professor    of    Medicine,    Berlin.  . 

Georg  Reicke, 

Berlin. 

Prof.  Max  Reinhardt, 

Director  of   the   German  Theatre, 
Berlin. 

Alois  Riehl, 

Professor  of  Philosophy,  Berlin. 

Karl  Robert, 

Professor   of    Archaeology,    Halle. 

Wilhelm  Roentgen, 

Professor  of  Physics.  Munich. 


August  Schmidlin, 

Professor    of    Sacred    History, 
Mundter. 


Gustav  von  Schmoller, 

Professor   of   National   Economy, 
Berlin. 


Reinhold  Seeberg, 

Professor   of   Protestant   Theology, 
Berlin. 


Martin  Spahn, 

Professor    of    History,    Strassburg. 

Franz  von  Stuck, 

Munich. 

Hermann  Sudermann, 

Berlin. 

Hans  Thoma, 

Karlsruhe. 

Wilhelm  Truebner, 

Karlsruhe. 

Karl  Vollmoeller, 

Stuttgart. 


Max  Rubner, 

Professor  of  Medicine,  Berlin. 


Richard  Voss, 

Berchtesgaden. 


Fritz  Schaper, 

Berlin. 

Adolf  von  Schlatter, 

FrofeMOr     of     Protestant     Theology, 
Tubingen. 


Karl  Vossler, 

ProfesBor    of    Roman    PhUology, 
Munich. 


Siegfried  Wagner, 

Bayrtuth. 


32 


Wilhelm  Waldeyer, 

Professor    of    Anatomy.    Berlin. 

August  von  Wassermann, 

Professor  of  Medicine,  Berlin. 

Felix  von  Weingartner. 
Theodor  Wiegand, 

Museum   Director,    Berlin. 

Wilhelm  Wien, 

Professor  of  Physics,  Wurxburg. 


Ulrich  von  Wilamowitz- 
Moellendorff, 

Professor    of    Philologj-,    Berlin. 

Richard  Willstaetter, 

Professor   of   Chemistry,    Berlin. 

Wilhelm  Windelband, 

Professor   of   Philosophy,    Heidelberg. 

Wilhelm  Wundt, 

Professor    of    Philosophy,    Leipsic. 


"Our  excellent  President  Wilson, 
beloved  and  esteemed  by  our 
whole  people,  has  charged  us  all 
to  maintain  an  impartial  neu- 
trality, and  that  I  believe  we  are 
all  earnestly  striving  to  do;  but 
we  are,  at  the  same  time,  in  like 
manner,  earnestly  striving  to 
find  the  right  and  to  condemn 
the  wrong,  because  neutrality 
can  never  mean  indifference. 
You  will  remember  that  Dante, 
in  the  Inferno,  found  a  hell  be- 
neath all  other  hells  prepared  for 
those  timid  beings  who  insisted 
on  being  neutral  in  the  everleist- 
ing  fight  between  good  and  evil. 
This  war  is  a  fight  between  those 
forces  of  good  and  evil." 

S.  H.  CHURCH 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 


* 


This  book  IS  DUE  on  the  las 
date  stamped  below 

DISCHAR(|F  IIRL 


AUG  10 


1978 


lOm-8,'32 


i^iii' 


